The present invention broadly relates to the building or construction art and, more particularly, concerns a new and improved mounting cross-piece or node assembly as well as an improved mounting cross-piece or node.
Generally speaking, the mounting cross-piece assembly of the present development serves for the sealed or leak-tight connection of the cut ends of profiles or profile sections of a support or carrier construction, also referred to as a framework, which is to be suspended at the ceiling of a room. Each such profile or profile section is provided with a lengthwise or longitudinal opening. Such type of support or carrier construction or framework can be especially employed for mounting filter frames of clean room filters in gas-tight fashion in the support or carrier construction. A connection element is provided which, on the one hand, can be inserted into the cut end of the profile which is to be connected with the mounting cross-piece and, on the other hand, into a side of the mounting cross-piece of the mounting cross-piece assembly or unit, and which side confronts the profile section. Such connecting element can then be secured in both of these components or parts.
Such type of mounting cross-piece assembly is generally known from the disclosure of the German Petty Patent No. G 85 00 198.8, published Dec. 12, 1985, and assigned to Klima und Kalte GmbH Beratung und Vertrieb fur Klima und Kaltetechnik, located at 6300 Giessen, West Germany. However, the therein described threaded connection of the support or girder profiles or profile sections with the mounting cross-pieces, and which threaded connection is disclosed as part of the grid ceiling, is afflicted with the shortcoming that it is not possible to remove or disassemble from the finished mounted grid structure individual support or girder profiles or profile sections without cutting the profile section or destroying the grid structure.
Also, seals or sealing means which have been possibly mounted at a mounting cross-piece and which, for instance, seal the connection joints with the profile sections, usually cannot be exchanged without cutting out or destroying the mounting cross-piece. According to another known support or carrier ceiling construction it is necessary to destroy a number of rivets in order to be able to remove a single profile or profile section from the finished support or carrier ceiling construction.
Generally, the end surfaces of the support or girder profiles or profile sections which are to be joined at a mounting or assembly intersection or cross or at similar cross-piece assemblies require a special, extremely accurate machining prior to the fabrication of the connection with the mounting cross-piece or node, in order to establish the requisite seal between the end surfaces of the profile sections and the corresponding connection surfaces of the mounting cross-piece. This, in turn, necessitates the availability of appropriate equipment at the factory or plant or workshop and, in particular, the availability of specially trained personnel, both of which are especially not readily available at remote locations or regions, for instance in relatively unpopulated or underdeveloped regions.
Heretofore known connection structures, and this is equally true of the above-described prior art construction, also require a particular design of the mounting cross-piece entailing the provision of a recess or recesses at each connection surface of the cross-piece, the configuration of which must be exactly accommodated to that of the related or associated connection element.